The Inerrancy of Nature

It is a good thing to believe in and defend the inerrancy of the Word of God. Better, it’s a necessary thing. The Bible is God’s Word and is without error in all that it teaches. My hero, and my hero’s hero, Dr. John Gerstner used to demonstrate the foolishness of professing Christians who denied inerrancy this way. He would write their thesis on the chalkboard:

The Bible is the Word of God which errs.

He would then rightly affirm that “The Bible” and “Word of God” are synonyms, and so re-write the sentence this way:

The Word of God errs.

He would then rightly affirm that the Word is God, citing John 1 and rewrite the sentence this way:

God errs.

It’s a ludicrous notion, as plain as the nose on the face of someone with a very plain nose. Which is why it puzzles me that I so consistently get pushback every time I make this claim- natural revelation is inerrant. It is, you know. I’m happy to concede that that which God has chosen to reveal through His creation is often less clear or precise than what He has chosen to reveal in His Word. But it is no less true because it is no less Him.

“Wait!” my critics cry, “Don’t you know that nature is fallen?” Of course it is. I’m well aware of that. I’m too polite, usually, to reply, “Wait! Don’t you know God is not fallen?” The assurance of the inerrancy of the Bible is in no way the result of the means, the men He used to communicate. They too, every mother’s son of them, are fallen. It is not the means of communication but the source. God could no more make a mistake speaking through His creation than He could speaking through His creatures, us.

Do we reach false conclusions when looking at His creation? Of course we do, just like we reach false conclusions when we look at His Word. Inerrancy, whether speaking of the Word or the World is not any kind of guarantee against misinterpretation. His lips are perfect. Our ears are fallen. When fallen sinners, desperate to suppress their knowledge of God, look at rock strata and conclude the earth was formed over the space of billions of years, complete with trillions of deaths, the problem is not in the strata. It is not mistaken. The fallen sinner is.

What difference does it make? All the difference in the world. When we remember that God speaks inerrantly through His creation we will rejoice over His creation all the more. We will better submit ourselves to the written Word, which tells us God speaks (and therefore speaks inerrantly) through His creation. We will better bring all things under subjection, ruling under Him and over His world. We will pursue with greater vigor the truth that He has spoken, never fearing that one of His books could ever contradict the other. We would praise Him, joining the chorus of the stars, the trees of the field clapping their hands, the mountains melting at His presence, all creation speaking the one truth that encompasses them all- Glory.